How Research Meets Our Mission

FOW has an active research program examining chimpanzee behavior, sign language studies, communication, and animal welfare. These areas of research all share a common theme of communication. We address three objectives: 1. How do chimpanzees use American Sign Language? 2. How do chimpanzees and humans communicate gesturally? 3. How can we improve animal welfare? We believe that through an understanding of communication, we can improve animal welfare. Friends of Washoe supports Primate Communication scientists and digitization of the data from the project.

Objective 1: How do chimpanzees use American Sign Language? FOW's legacy is with Washoe, the first nonhuman to acquire ASL, and her family. Tatu and Loulis, the remaining chimpanzees, reside at Fauna Foundation. Caregivers trained in ASL and chimpanzee behavior continue making daily records of their signs and interactions with other chimpanzees and humans. FOW has received support from the Winley Foundations and David Bonnett Foundation for partial support of these caregivers. Analysis of these records is ongoing and includes student interns at Fauna Foundation and at Central Washington University, supervised by Dr. Jensvold. Collaboration includes faculty from Yakima Valley Community College, McGill University, and Central Washington University. For decades FOW supported data collection on chimpanzee signs in written records, film, and videos. Studies involved analysis of these records. FOW supports preservation of these records, partially supported by funding from the Lonsbury foundation. The CHCI Archive provides storage and research space on the campus of CWU.

A sampling of publications and presentations in this area of research include:

Objective 2: How do chimpanzees and humans communicate gesturally? While the CHCI chimpanzees use human gestures they additionally use the natural gesture of their species. Research projects at CHCI have explored various aspects of natural gestures in captive and free-living chimpanzees and this research is ongoing. These studies show that various chimpanzee groups have gestural dialects and that chimpanzees use combinations of gestures to communicate with conspecifics. This research is made possible by the chimpanzees at Friends of Washoe and the collection of videotapes from African chimpanzee sanctuaries and field settings. These studies extend into the human population as well including individuals with autism and deaf signer.

A sampling of publications and presentations in this area of research include:

Objective 3: How can we improve animal welfare? CHCI has a history of research exploring animal welfare. Early studies included environmental enrichment for the chimpanzees. This was funded for 11 years through Earthwatch. Later studies explored the relationships between caregivers and chimpanzees at CHCI and zoo settings. In August 2011 Mary Lee Jensvold through invitation presented this research at the Detroit Zoological Society's seminal symposium From Good Care to Great Welfare Advancing Zoo Animal Welfare Science and Policy. This demonstrates that CHCI is recognized as an international leader in scholarship on animal welfare. Additionally we have examined ways to lessen the negative impact of visitors both to CHCI and zoo settings. This research was funded by the Animal Welfare Institute and included collaborations with The Zoo Northwest Florida and the Oakland Zoo. This research has extended recently to studies at Fauna Foundation exploring the effect of operant conditioning in interactions; the use of species-typical behaviors in monkey-caregiver interactions; and the chimpanzees' use of space and enrichment at Fauna.

A sampling of publications and presentations in this area of research include:

Jensvold, M.L. (2017, March 30). Chimpanzee of Fauna Foundation, Captive Wildlife and the Law Symposium, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT.